“Food Without Harm” Campaign

Africa’s food systems are changing rapidly. Growing populations, urbanisation, climate pressures, new technologies and increasing investment are creating opportunities to transform how food is produced, processed and distributed. However, the choices made today will determine whether this transformation strengthens local livelihoods and healthy communities or deepens inequality, environmental degradation and the concentration of power within food systems.

Our theory of change is that food systems should work for people, planet and prosperity. By influencing policies, investments and practices, amplifying community voices, and promoting sustainable alternatives, we seek food systems that protect livelihoods and human well-being, safeguard nature and animals, and create fair and shared economic opportunities for present and future generations.

We promote food systems in which economic development goes hand in hand with healthy communities, thriving farmers, decent livelihoods, animal welfare and environmental sustainability. This means encouraging investments and policies that create genuine economic opportunities while protecting land, biodiversity, natural resources and the rights of communities.

Central to this campaign is ensuring that smallholder farmers, pastoralists, women, young people and local communities have a meaningful voice in decisions shaping the future of food and agriculture. As food systems attract growing public and private investment, transparency, accountability and community participation are essential to ensuring that development benefits are widely shared.

We also work to strengthen understanding of the wider consequences of different food production models – from their impacts on climate, biodiversity and public health to their implications for livelihoods, food sovereignty and local economies. Through research, public engagement, policy dialogue and collective action, we encourage decision-makers and other food systems actors to consider these interconnected impacts when shaping agricultural development. Overall, we envision an African food system where profit and prosperity are not achieved at the expense of people or the planet. Instead, economic opportunity should reinforce ecological resilience, social equity, healthy diets and thriving local communities.

Because the future of food is not simply about producing more. It is about producing better, sharing benefits more fairly, protecting the resources that sustain us, and ensuring that food systems serve both present and future generations.